The Caracal/Desert Lynx

"Caracal Caracal"

Picture of the fierce and agile Caracal.
Picture of the fierce and agile Caracal.


The Caracal is an organism because it
  1. Grows and develops: mates year round, young live one year with their mother then start to reach sexual maturity, breed usually in mid winter, newborns weigh about 198-250, later weigh 35-50 lbs, sometimes males fight for females and kind of become the bodyguard, newborns open eyes around 4-10 days, Their deciduous teeth come in are developed at 50 days and canine teeth come in at 4-5 months, kittens go outside the birthing den at one month of age. Young have spots that disappear with age.
  2. Reproduction: gestation lasts about 69-81 days, estrus lasts 5-6 days, when giving birth females use caves/tree cavities/burrows, can be 1-6 kitten litter, copulation lasts from 1 minute and 30 seconds to 10 minutes.
  3. Respond to environment: If there is a animal that is in their diet they would be likely to catch it (see Hunting/Diet) and if not hungry or if can't finish their meal they will likely hide the carcass to eat later or maybe give to their children. They scent mark territory, leave feces in noticeable, spray urine, or raking the ground. They would use cat sounds for threat, or exclamation of comfort (e.g. purr, hiss, growling etc.) but they also could produce a barking sound, possibly to exclaim warning. Caracals are usually solitary animals, but can be found in packs. If an other Caracal was "hitting on his girl" he would attack the other caracal to prove he's worthy or for defense.
Basic Needs:
  1. Nutrients and energy: The Caracal eats like other cats, it goes down the digestive system and comes out in a lump of feces. The meaning of carnivore is that it only digests meat, usually from other animals but could be from an owners refrigerator. It does not eat like an aquatic mammal but as a land mammal. It has an esophagus like us humans to eat food an is right next to the trachea. Caracals can catch prey in different ways, in the case of birds they can jump 2 meters or much more to catch their prey. smaller prey are killed with a bite of the neck while larger are killed by biting their throat and then using their claws. Usually eat animals that weigh 5 kg or more and if the dead animal is to large to be eaten in a single meal they hide the body and eat it later. They will approach the prey before sprinting and kill them quick. Usually they eat antelope, rodents, birds, gazelle, and hyraxes. This video show the Caracals hunting ability

  2. Water: Caracals can live long without water because the body fluids given to them by the preys deceased body is enough to sustain it. Due to this unique ability and its hunting abilities makes the Caracal a powerful animal that is able to live in dry desert areas.
  3. Breathing: Caracals have medium sized lungs, mostly because it doesn't move fast like the Cheetah although it is a very agile animal and makes quick movements. It inhales/exhales medium sized amounts of air mostly because it doesn't require lots of strength to climb trees and kill. It does not live underwater obviously, and the Caracal's respiratory contains a trachea, a heart, diaphragm, others.
    This shows the internal respiratory and other parts of the caracals neck area.
    This shows the internal respiratory and other parts of the caracals neck area.
  4. Habitat/shelter: The habitat of the Caracal is an extensive range from savannas to semi-deserts but prefer woodland and savanna regions with little rainfall and shelter. In many places the Caracal is rare but it was voted least common in some other countries. One example of where Caracals live is South Africa and it has several subspecies such as the Nubicus (inhabits Nubia) and Poecilotis (inhabits north Nigeria). They can shelter themselves in caves or holes because of the Caracals agility it is hard to see. Some humans use the Caracals as a hunting animal or for tradition/culture, so naturally they can live in human homes, gardens, wide cages with shelter as long as it doesn't anger the Caracal (that wouldn't be a happy sight).The Caracal is a nocturnal animal (hunts at night) so it is likely to have night vision.
Culture and etymology: Caracals seemed to have some religious connection with ancient Egyptians. They were found in wall paintings, guarded tombs with other cats, and their bodies were embalmed. In historical periods the Caracal was used for hunting/blood sports in India. Over there one sport was to set a captive Caracal on a flock of pigeons and bets were made on how many birds would be caught by the feline. if the Caracal was trained it could bring down 12 birds, wow! Caracals have been kept even today as pets in Africa, North America, India and several other locations. The word Caracal is descended from the Turkish words "Kara Kulak" or "Black Ear". In North India "स्याहगोश syahgosh" and in Persia it is known as
"سیاه گوش siyāh-gosh, which means Black ear, an animal of the panther-kind, where with they hunt deer; lynx." It's not a lynx species but is known as the Desert Lynx, Asian Lynx, and African Lynx. In Toubou it's known as the gazelle cat and is called red cat in Afrikaans (a language down in Africa, not to be confused with African). IT is also said to be descended from Panthera Leo-African Lion according to National Geographic.




external image cats18.jpg


[[/wiki/Biological_classification|Scientific classification]]
Kingdom:
[[/wiki/Animal|Animalia]]
Phylum:
[[/wiki/Chordate|Chordata]]
Class:
[[/wiki/Mammal|Mammalia]]
Order:
[[/wiki/Carnivora|Carnivora]]
Family:
[[/wiki/Felidae|Felidae]]
Subfamily:
[[/wiki/Felinae|Felinae]]
Genus:
Caracal [[/wiki/John_Edward_Gray|Gray]], 1843
Food Chain: Humans are the main predator of the Caracal, usually farmers due to their predation on livestock, No other information was found on the internet about the predators of a Caracal. For the shortage of this answer I would say that the Caracal is a formidable predator or maybe the predators of the Caracal aren't well known, my hypothesis is that only relatively large animals hunt the Caracal. One image on cougarbiology was found and is listed below although the prey of a Caracal is listed in Nutrients and Energy.


Links:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Caracal+Food+Chain&Form=IQFRDR#view=detail&id=A23BD9DB3107453FAB46F165508F707DEB288516&selectedIndex=0

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=caracal+range&id=80DFFE0A8C4FF05BCF2A50050E67903627B43BC7&FORM=IQFRBA#a

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=caracal+range&id=80DFFE0A8C4FF05BCF2A50050E67903627B43BC7&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=C238E98F976B72B99F4B5689C3754387C34E862E&selectedIndex=5

https://www.google.ca/search?q=caracal+egyptian&rlz=1C1BLWB_enCA557CA557&espv=210&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=sm9oUp97pLDJAbCigNAO&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#es_sm=122&espv=210&q=caracal+ancient+egypt&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=faxC7h7S4gPCkM%3A%3BdH1TY6DCjGAKvM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.touregypt.net%252Fimages%252Ftouregypt%252Fcats18.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.touregypt.net%252Ffeaturestories%252Fcats.htm%3B354%3B226
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EZlORLgLyM
http://www.ofcats.com/2007/07/caracal.html
http://www.tigertouch.org/worldofcats/caracal.html
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=caracal&id=606699897247DD1CEF4E77D6B06FA517F6570BC8&FORM=IQFRBA&adlt=strict#view=detail&id=83D4B307DC4C7D81C96F078E2F0BFD0524EE167F&selectedIndex=9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracal
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_the_caracal_have_small_or_big_lungs
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=respiratory+caracal&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=57A3EC774AEDB60359CE0248E8FB16E4B812ABCD&selectedIndex=0